Blood of Trees by Rebekah Loper – Curiosity Quills Contest

Not too long ago, I came across a contest that I decided I had to enter.  This contest is in celebration of the release of the book Wilde’s Fire by Krystal Wade.  Besides being an author, Krystal is an acquisitions editor for Curiosity Quills.  You can purchase the book by clicking on the picture.

The winner of this contest will receive a full request from Curiosity Quills press.

Yeah.

Like I said, too good to resist!

Without further ado, here is my query and first 500 words of Blood of Trees (my regular readers will know this as Weeping Willow, but a title change was definitely in order . . .)

Query Letter

Dear Ms. Wade,

The barren northern wastes are the only home Ysabel has ever known, but she doesn’t know that staying there will kill her.  Finding the trees that haunt her dreams is her only hope.

To save her life, Ysabel’s father arranges for her to marry Matthew, a duke.  Leaving behind everything to travel south to Matthew, Ysabel discovers her own powers with the dryads her mother once ruled.

This is exactly what Matthew’s mother, the Duchess, hoped for, but her plans are turned awry when her son actually falls in love with his betrothed.  The Duchess knows Ysabel’s true birthright and won’t hesitate to destroy anyone who stands in the way of her controlling the power the half-dryad girl possesses.

But Ysabel didn’t know that her link with the dryads would feed a growing taste for blood and revenge.  She is still half-human, though, and her soul won’t last long on the dark path she begins to embrace.

BLOOD OF TREES is a stand-alone New Adult fantasy novel, complete at 82,000 words.  It will appeal to readers who enjoy the feel of THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO.

Thank you for your consideration,

Rebekah Loper

Blood of Trees (first 500 words)

Prologue

The Northern Knight, called Richard by those he loved, had woven the containment spells around Ysabel’s suite hours earlier when the nurse took her to retire.  His daughter was so young, barely even three. She was a miracle.

Tonight, he would be working a very delicate balance of magic.  Ysabel must stay asleep, and the first small spell he cast ensured that she and her nursemaid would not be disturbed by anything, be it magical or physical.  But as he whispered the words to end the chant, blood-scent filled his nostrils.

He had to work faster.

Spells were fragile, and he worked as quickly as he dared to extinguish the candles around the room.  He began a new chant, his voice strong and forceful.  Spells for sleep required a delicate touch, but spells to interfere with blood magic and death required strength.

At first, it seemed nothing was happening. He kept chanting.

The night crept in, barely noticeable, first clinging to the shadows and corners of the room.  Gradually everything around him faded, hiding even the blazing fire on the hearth.  The light ceased to exist.  It was more than just darkness.  It was a void, absorbing every particle of illumination around him.

In the moment when light was almost extinguished, Richard made the connection with his brother’s blood, focusing on where to find it.  There were a hundred leagues to travel.  This would require more strength than he thought.  Drawing on the power with the dark, he began to whisper.

“Light of moon, be my path.”

Richard was certain his eyes were open, but nothing broke the darkness.  The moon was full.  Even if he couldn’t see it, the light was still there.

“Take me now to where I ask.”

With a sudden, quiet stillness, he was gone.  The void went with him.

# # #

Darkness surrounded him like a shroud, and only the fact that he still drew breath allayed his fear.  The shroud loosened as he found his bearings, but it lingered in the forest.  He was too late.

Moonlight filtered through the branches, and his eyes quickly adjusted to that small amount of light after a journey through the void.  Any glimmer of light is a beacon when surrounded by shadows.

The scent of blood hung heavily in the air, cloying and sweet. His stomach churned.  Alderic’s blood had called him here, but he had never been able to sense his wife’s.  Where were they?

With a cry, he realized the heap beneath the shadows of the trees was their sleigh, overturned at the side of the trail.  The reindeer lay slaughtered on the ground, their fur soaked with blood that seeped into the snow beneath them.  Their entrails were strung across the forest floor.  Wind blew softly through the trees, and he sensed the magic curling along its path.

This had been planned.

A noise interrupted his shock.  It was faint, but very close.

“ . . . ard . . .”

It was his brother’s voice.

 
 
To find a list of the other writers participating in this contest and to read their entries, please visit this post at Sharon Bayliss’ blog.

U for Unicorn – #atozchallenge

Unicorns.

The fabled horse-like creatures with a single horn protruding from their heads.  They represent purity, virginity, etc.

Who knows where these things originated?  Was it the rhinocerous?

The narwhal?

The drunken delusions of an insane bard, centuries and centuries ago?

They’ve been the target of all types of speculation in fantasy stories.  Terry Brooks has a unicorn play a major part in The Black Unicorn.  Mercedes Lackey has them in her book, Fortune’s Fool.  There’s The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle - which I have not read, but heard much about.

What’s your favorite unicorn myth and/or story?

N for Necromancy – #atozchallenge

photo by slworking2

Whenever a character in a story mentions ‘the necromancer’, you know things are about to get serious.

What is necromancy? (just in case some of you don’t know)

According to Dictionary.com, it is:

a method of divination through alleged communication with the dead; black art.

Obviously, there’s a lot of potential with writing a necromancer into the story, because it can take a multitude of twists.  The necromancer could truly be communicating with the dead, or he could think he was, and find out later that he’s messing with something that he has absolutely no control over.  He could be a complete sham and just doing things to gain someone’s fear/love/whatever.

Like I said, so much potential!

M for Magic – #atozchallenge

Photo by Sergey Bober

Magic is what differentiates fantasy from science fiction.

Fantasy is all about what isn’t possible, science fiction is all about what might be possible.

Most of the time (but not all), there is magic in a fantasy story.

Magic can be anything from someone having a special ability that they were born with, to someone who sacrifices humans to steal their life-force.  It can be what holds everything together, and it can be what threatens to tear everything apart.

It can be wonderful, or it can be terrifying.  I seem to lean more toward the terrifying side, but there are moments when terrifying is wonderful in itself, because it commands your attention and makes you stop and see it.

Isn’t that what magic is, both in the fantasy land of our own heads, and in real-life?  Whatever makes us stop and see?

L for Love – #atozchallenge

Kahlan & Richard

Love.

It makes us do the most sensible things, and the most crazy things, sometimes at the same time.  So many stories in our history have revolved around the subject of love, and the exploration of what it is.

But how do you define something that powerful?  It’s like trying to define God.  It’s just not possible.

Yet, that is exactly what we must do as writers.

Love can be the hand that stays a weapon, or wields it, depending on whether it’s in mercy or defense.

Love can be an incredible motivator.

Did you know that the only reason Aragorn was willing to pursue his rightful place as the King of Gondor in Lord of the Rings was because Elrond wouldn’t let Arwen marry a mortal man that was LESS than a king?

And what about Richard and Kahlan in Terry Goodkind’s The Sword of Truth?  Their love was impossible, literally – since Kahlan was a Confessor, and essentially brainwashed anyone she touched with her magic, it was impossible for her to be with someone she loved without brainwashing them.  There’s a big giant loophole to that, though, and I saw it coming from the beginning of book one.  It sure felt like it took forever to get there!

Even if love or romance isn’t a main focus of the story, it can still be an excellent motivator for characters.  A world without love is a very boring one, and without love, would there even be hatred?

What are your favorite stories influenced by love?

B for Blood – #atozchallenge

Image by Csutkaa

The Bible says that the life of the flesh is in the blood (Leviticus 16:11), and that without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sins (Hebrews 9:22).

Cultures around the world place great emphasis on blood covenants and blood sacrifice.

Stories can use blood as an amazing source of inspiration.

In my Weeping Willow story, blood sorcery is one of the forbidden types of magic, because it often requires the taking of a life.

Vampire stories should be obvious in their connection with the use of blood.  In many other stories, blood is the one, final touch needed for a spell or a sacrifice to be successful.

What are ways you have used blood in your stories?

My Writing Trivia – Prize: $10 Amazon.com Gift Card

It’s test time!  Okay, not really . .  but I couldn’t resist!  Once again, just a reminder that you must be a subscriber to my blog to be eligible to win the gift card!  Post your answers in the comments, please.  Good luck!

Since so many of you are new and being directed here from the Writers’ Platform-Building Campaign, the answers can be found somewhere within this post, this post, and this post.

#1 – Name the three mythical creatures I mentioned in the Weeping Willow post.

#2 – What is special about Father Time’s helpers?

#3 – Which of the three people groups of Gyti is the most cultured?

Answers must be in within 48 hours of this post! That would be Sunday, September 4th at 7:59 am Central Daylight Time.

My Writing: Weeping Willow

In my ‘Breaking Down Categories‘ post, I mentioned the three main stories I have been working on for some time (and am supposed to be currently working on >_<, in between preparing for some contests).  They were Weeping Willow, Father Time, and Gyti.  The next three Wednesday posts are going to be an overview of each of these stories, because I will refer to them and probably rant about them from time to time on this blog.

Weeping Willow was first conceived in 2008.  My husband and I were just married and then discovered right away that we were going to have to buy a new car because my transmission was about to die.  I dropped all of my on-campus college classes, because it was a matter of driving as little as possible.  The one class I did keep, though, was “Short Story 1″, because it was an online class.

One of the first assignments was to sit down and write out three different scenes for different stories – brainstorming, basically.  I don’t even remember what my first two ideas were.  It was the third idea that captured my imagination.

All I saw was a girl in a forest.  She was crying.  I knew absolutely nothing about her except the color of her hair, and that for some reason her entire world has crumbled around her, and I had to find out why.

Thus, the idea was born.

Isabel and her Wolfhound

Through the class, the story became more clear.  I learned that my character’s name was Isabel.  I learned that she was half-dryad, half-human; I learned she had no memory of her mother, and that her soul-mate had just been murdered by his brother.  The more I delved into Isabel’s story, the more entranced I became.  An entire world began to evolve, with an intricate reliance on magic.  Not just one kind of magic, but several.  Not everyone could work each type of magic, it is something you are born with.  Some are born with the ability to only sense magic.

The most common form of magic is elemental.  Anyone who is born with this talent has an affinity to one element, and most can only control that element.  Very few are able to control more than one element, and those few are the ones who train to become Elemental Knights.  Elemental Knights are powerful lord-mages who care for certain provinces – these are North, South, East and West.  Isabel’s father is the Northern Knight.

There are a few other kinds of magic, including black magic and blood sorcery.  Black magic is taboo, but not unknown, and it is the magic that anyone can learn to use whether they are born with the talent or not.  Blood sorcery is met with a death penalty, so those who use it are very quiet about it.  Only humans can use blood sorcery.  Mythical creatures have their own magical powers that are not connected to any of these.

Isabel, because she is half-dryad and half-human, and she will eventually discover that her conception was only possible because of blood magic, is a magical nexus of sorts.  She can use dryad-magic, all forms of elemental magic (because her father is talented that way), black magic, and blood sorcery.  This is what all her problems are going to be caused by.

There are at least three mythical creatures that exist in the world of Weeping Willow.  There is Death, and it is a single entity, and it can be bargained with.  There are dryads, and (with the exception of Isabel and her mother) they are a malicious, man-hating lot.  If they even talk to man, it is because they have a use for him.  There are Pukas, either black or white.  This is simply a classification, not an indicator of good or evil.  Pukas have some magical powers (they have an animal form that they can shape-shift back and forth from; certain powerful pukas may have more than one animal form), but they are also magical voids.

That is just a glimpse into the world of Weeping Willow, of course.  I can’t reveal it all here or there’s no point in you reading it one day!

Writing this story for a short story class was an interesting experience, though.  I had no idea of what the girl was going to tell me when I stopped to listen to her.  My first submission of Weeping Willow to my professor was given the response of “Is this a first chapter?  It’s okay if it is, you just need to let me know, and I’ll let you use it instead of a short story.”

I wasn’t quite sure what to do with that!  I did come to the realization that I had too much plot in the first draft of the short story, and so I ended up cutting out what was a vital part of it to me – Isabel’s fiance.  I chose to do it as a short story, rather than a first chapter, because I wanted to make myself work within the requirements.  I needed to know that I could do that and still come away with a finished story that I was pleased with.

I also knew that it was going to be easy for me to sit down later and turn Weeping Willow into a novel.  I had to wait a couple years, though, but that was okay because I didn’t know everything about it yet.  It wasn’t until November of 2009 that I learned what was so important about the wolfhound that Isabel’s father gave her.  If I hadn’t waited that time for the story to finish ‘speaking’, it wouldn’t be what it is today.

The first draft of Weeping Willow in novel format is finished, it was my 2010 NaNoWriMo and topped out at a little more than 86,000 words.  I just need to finish editing, and then do at least one rewrite.  There is a lot I need to add to it to make everything cohesive.  Right now it’s just the story of Isabel, which is okay, but some of the things that happen to her need more explanation.  It’ll get there, all in due time.

If anyone has questions or wants to know more about Weeping Willow, please let me know!  I plan to get a page up on the blog just for Weeping Willow stuff eventually.  By ‘eventually’ I mean ‘hopefully by the end of the year’.

Also, just for fun, I’m going to do a little contest with these three blog posts (one each Wednesday, including this one, for the next few weeks).  I’ll post a little trivia test after I’ve posted all three of these story overviews, and from those who answer correctly (in the comments), I’ll randomly draw a name to win $10 in Amazon gift cards!

There is a little tiny requirement, though – you must subscribe to my blog to be eligible.  I promise not to spam your inbox or drive you crazy.  Actually, I’m not sure I can promise to not drive you crazy.  But I won’t do it on purpose.  I only post here maybe 2-3 times a week.  Sometimes only once a week .

So, after I post the ‘Father Time’ and ‘Gyti’ overviews, keep an eye out for the Trivia Test!